204 ADVENTURES IN THE NORTHERN SEAS. 



made manifest, and a company of Russian traders 

 in Archangel organized a regular wintering estab- 

 lishment, for the purpose of hunting the seal and 

 the walrus, the Polar bear and the reindeer. Their 

 men were left there in September or October, and 

 were distributed in small parties of two, three, or 

 four individuals each, in wooden huts, which had 

 been constructed in Archangel, and were erected in 

 different parts of the coasts and islands of Spitz- 

 bergen. The men were paid by a share of the pro- 

 ceeds, and were supplied by their employers with 

 provisions, consisting principally of rye meal, salt 

 pork, and tea. They had a sort of head-quarters es- 

 tablishment at Hvalfiske Point, which was under 

 the charge of a superintendent or clerk, who dis- 

 tributed the supplies to the hunters, and collected 

 the skins and blubber from the different outposts ; 

 and the company sent over a vessel in the month 

 of May every year to relieve the men and carry the 

 proceeds of their labors to Archangel. 



It was probably found to be too severe a strain 

 upon the constitution to pass successive winters in 

 this way, as I believe it was usual for these men 

 only to remain every alternate winter in Spitzber- 

 gen. In 1858 I was informed there was still living 

 at Kola, in Lapland, an aged Russian who had actu- 

 ally wintered thirty-five alternate seasons at Spitz- 

 bergen. Many of these hardy fellows, however, 

 succumbed to scurvy and the hardships they en- 

 dured ; and many hundreds must have thus miser- 



